Game's not over with Cuba

JYOTI MALHOTRA

New Delhi, February 1, 2007 : The Bush administration may have won scores of fans here by determinedly pushing the nuclear deal with India, but clearly, the game isn’t over yet.

New Delhi has now decided to support Cuba, against America, in elections for the International Baseball Federation scheduled for March.

Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports Mani Shankar Aiyar, currently on a visit to Havana to sign a cooperation agreement in sports, has been mandated to tell Cuban officials that India will support its candidature in the baseball elections.

Considering baseball is very much part of the American holy trinity, invoking the kind of passion usually devoted to religion and entertainment, the March contest is likely to be a spirited one.

Cuba, too, has played baseball for over a hundred years. In fact, baseball was the choice weapon of dissent by Cuban natives against their Spanish rulers, who believed in the power and glory of the bullfight.

Back in India, the Cuba vs America story is no child’s play. The US may have single-handedly given New Delhi a leg-up in the international nuclear order, but the truth is that a majority of India’s hearts and minds still beat for Havana.

From CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a diehard reformer, Cuba’s charms have hardly eluded anyone. Singh made it a point to attend the NAM summit in Havana last October, where he took time off to meet an ailing Fidel Castro, skipping the UN General Assembly session in New York.

Many in the Foreign Office see the vote for Cuban baseball as a vindication for long-held beliefs, but others argue that it is symbolism at its best. ``Just like the satyagraha conference held in the memory of Mahatma Gandhi, it hardly matters whether India votes for Cuba or America,’’ one cynic said.

Still, the symbolism clearly matters. As for Mani Shankar Aiyar, he received a message from Cuba’s ambassador to India seeking support in the March baseball polls. Aiyar, a former diplomat, approached the MEA for clearance. He got it.

Sports ministry sources said Aiyar, who has often been publicly critical about the US, has also requested to meet Castro during his Cuban journey.

If the meeting comes through, it will clearly be one action he won’t mind replaying over and over again.
ENDS